5 Ways To Blow Up Your Bench Pres

When your bench press has leveled off, it's time to consider some strategies that'll leave your old PR behind. Here are 5 proven winners.

As a newbie, your gains on the bench press made it feel like you were really taking flight with your fitness. 

The weights got higher seemingly with each passing workout. 

The initial ascent was so steady that you half expected to hear a ding and then see someone wheel out a cart filled with peanuts and drinks.Then you hit cruising altitude. Maybe your gains slowed. Maybe they stopped altogether.Well, maybe that's because your training was placed on autopilot.

Stop whining about your lousy bench press and how you've tried anything and everything and it's still going nowhere.

Here are five strategies and form pointers that can help you add a few more plates to the bar.

Ready for takeoff?

BENCH BOOSTER 1:  KEEP YOUR FEET ON THE FLOOR

Benching with your feet on the bench, or free floating, means the amount of weight you can lift will drop. That's because you're no longer availing yourself of a major power source: your feet. 

A substantial amount of power derives from pushing through your feet. Just watch any powerlifter bench and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Greater stability against which to push—think of your legs as two parts of a tripod and your torso on the bench as the third—means you'll lift more weight. That's one reason stability-ball benchers have to drop their weights so much.

BENCH BOOSTER 2:  ADD BANDS OR CHAINS

Over the course of the range of motion (ROM) of the bench press, you're weakest at the bottom and strongest at the top. 

But the weight you use is typically determined by where you're weakest—the so-called sticking point. Adding a heavy chain secured on each end of the barbell increases the degree of resistance over the course of the ROM; the weight is completely on the floor when the bar is in the down position, but is lifted off as the bar is raised. Now you're able to increase the resistance on the upper end of the ROM where you're stronger.

BENCH BOOSTER 3:  GET A (WIDER) GRIP

Many beginners take a grip that's too close. 

The range of motion becomes longer—you have to push farther—and the relatively weaker triceps must take up more of the load. Instead, slide your hands out wider. A good rule of thumb for a powerful bench is to ensure your forearms are perpendicular to the floor when the bar is in the down position. If your forearms are tilted inward or outward at the bottom of the bench press, adjust your hands accordingly on your next set.

BENCH BOOSTER 4:  ALLOW YOUR SHOULDERS TO RETRACT

When you lower the barbell down toward your chest—which stretches your pecs—you're not simply lowering your arms behind the plane of your torso. 

Rather, you're retracting your shoulder blades and allowing your chest to billow like a big rooster. While this may exaggerate the curve in the thoracic spine, you're safe as long as you're stabilized on a bench. Better still, you'll be better able to generate force through your pecs while stabilizing, which protects your shoulders.

BENCH BOOSTER 5:  ELIMINATE ELASTIC ENERGY

Here's a way to improve your strength at the bottom of the bench, an area where most lifters are weakest. 

Set the safeties in a power rack to the bottom of your bench press ROM, just above your chest. Lower the bar and allow it to settle on the safeties for two seconds, then press up. 

You must work much harder because you no longer benefit from the stretch reflex, a fancy name for the elastic energy that builds up during an eccentric (downward) movement. Now stop at the bottom. No more help from the stretch reflex. As a result, the next concentric (upward) rep becomes much more difficult. 

So train with the safeties from a dead stop; once you go back to your normal rep training, you'll find you're stronger coming out of the hole.